Page 73 of Embraced in Ink

And, because seeing her with Colin had brought that all to the forefront.

Hand fisted, nails digging into her palm, she did her best to let out a slow breath.

She shouldn’t have let Colin into her house. Oh, she knew that Marcus hadn’t honestly thought she had cheated on him. He would never feel like that, but the fact that she hadn’t pushed Colin away immediately or more forcefully? Maybe she deserved that.

No, that wasn’t right.

She had done nothing to make Colin do what he did, and she knew Marcus knew that. At least, she hoped.

But maybe seeing the tableau had forced Marcus to see what they didn’t have.

What they had was a fake fairy tale where they could sleep together and pretend like everything was fine, like they weren’t going to ruin everything they’d ever had.

“Great job, Bristol,” she said, swallowing hard. She wasn’t going to cry again, but she felt like she needed to.

She needed to practice, her tour was coming up. She didn’t want to go out of town, didn’t want to leave the house. She had ignored calls from her family, from everybody. All she wanted to do was hide under her blankets and pretend that everything was okay when it actually wasn’t.

The doorbell rang, and she froze, her heart leaping into her throat.

“Marcus?” she asked, her voice a whisper.

But it wasn’t going to be him. How could it be? Not when he had said that he needed space. And being near each other would never be the right amount of space.

She licked her lips and made her way to the door and looked through the peephole.

It wasn’t Marcus, but thank God it wasn’t Colin either.

“Let us in, Bristol. We have keys, too.”

Bristol closed her eyes at the sound of Holland’s voice, and then let out a breath.

"Please, Bristol. Something’s wrong.”

That was Arden.

“I don’t know if breaking and entering is the best way to go about this, but I’ll do it if I have to.”

Madison.

And just like that, Bristol wasn’t completely alone.

She opened the door, knowing she didn’t want to see anyone, but realizing she didn’t have a choice.

“Hey,” Arden said and reached in for a hug. “I know you may not want a hug or people right now, because we have no idea what’s going on, but you’re not answering your phone, nor are you answering your emails or anything. So, we are here. Talk to us.”

They made their way inside, and Bristol let the tears fall, knowing there went her mascara and any concealer she had just put on.

“Oh, honey,” Holland said, bringing her in for a hug. Madison went to her other side, and then Bristol was there, too, and the four of them stood together as Bristol sobbed into their arms, wondering how this had happened.

Because she hadn’t thought of the consequences, that’s how.

Imagine that.

“Marcus ended it,” she said, trying to breathe.

“He did?” Arden asked, her voice low.

Bristol looked around them and knew she had to tell the truth. There was no point in trying to make it sound any better than it was.